Page 81 of To Keep A Wolf
He looks grimly determined—to do what, I can’t figure out.
We’ve tried it all.
Nothing has worked, and yet he doesn’t look beaten.
“Mac,” he says again, more gently this time.
I blink, trying to focus on what he’s not saying.
His gaze darts to something on my left then quickly back to my own confused stare.
“You can do this,” he says.
I almost laugh at his words. Instead, what comes out is a sound I can’t name. A grating of my voice against my throat.
He’s wrong. I tried to do this, and it only ended in bloodshed.
Jadick clicks his tongue. A sound of impatience I intend to ignore, but no one’s ever ignored Jadick Clemons successfully. I know that now.
He marches over, grabbing my still-healing bicep, the one Frankie just shot, and squeezes to the point of pain. My instinct is to shrink away, but thanks to the ropes holding me, I have nowhere to go. Instead, I grit my teeth rather than give him the satisfaction of a scream. Still, when I look up at him, I can see the glitter in his eye that says he knows he’s pushed me to the brink. And he’ll push me further still.
“That was a sad attempt at prolonging the inevitable, Mac. But we’re not finished here.”
He positions himself just so beneath the archway.
“We’re ready,” he snaps at the witch.
Rina takes a deep breath, and I find myself fighting hope that she’ll refuse. But she merely begins uttering an incantation. As if she didn’t witness our attempt at an insurrection before beginning her ceremony. Her voice wobbles slightly; the only clue she’s uncomfortable with the turn this night has taken. After a moment, it steadies again, and I feel the slither of magic as it creeps over my skin.
Gather ye, brother to brother,
Beseech we as one, the Great Wolf Mother,
On this night, we break with fate,
Under a black moon, we reject all mates;
What was once whole is broken again
What we’ve healed we now un-mend.
Generations before us,
The third branch becomes the source,
Accepted and cast off,
A queen and a pawn.
Her blood as an offering,
Her choice the softening.
Ripe and ready,
True and steady,
Great Wolf Mother,
